Caffeine Kills!

Have you ever had one of those moments where you were like “Wow this really could only happen to me?” Well let me tell you, I have those all the time. As a college student I have learned to function on practically no sleep and tons of caffeine. At the end of my freshman year I had two papers to write, five midterms to study for, a speech and a project. The worst part about it was I only had about a week and a half to do it.

I didn’t sleep, but I did occasionally take one to two hour naps when I had time. I was constantly drinking coffee and Mountain Dew to keep me awake. On top of that I didn’t take the time to actually eat a meal. There were more important things I could be doing with that time. After four days, I had gotten a lot accomplished but then weird things started to happen.

I began to feel like crap. I noticed I couldn’t stop shaking. I couldn’t sit down for more than five minutes. Then one night I was actually going to be able to get some sleep I couldn’t. I “fell asleep” about midnight and started having really weird dreams. I dreamed the walls in my room were changing colors and little pink and purple blob like creatures were chasing each other on my ceiling. About 3 a.m. I realized I never actually fell asleep. I was hallucinating not dreaming.

The next day it felt like nothing was real. It felt like everything was a dream. I went to Starbucks and bought a cup of coffee and it literally made me throw up and I noticed my skin had turned yellow. That’s when I realized something was really wrong. I called one of my friends whos mom is a nurse. Her mom told me I had caffeine poisoning. She told me to drink lots of water, eat something then try to sleep. I went and ate a good meal. I drank two bottles of water then I fell asleep. That was about 2 a.m. Friday morning when I woke up it was about 6. a.m. Saturday morning. I had slept for over 24 hours! I continued to eat properly, drink nothing but water and sleep. Within a week I was completely better.

I have definitely learned my lesson. Don’t get me wrong I still live on caffeine, but not just caffeine. I make sure to eat and sleep. Now whenever I drink a cup of coffee I immediately drink a bottle of water after it. Caffeine poisoning is real and it could be deadly. If you plan on pulling an all nighter drink as little caffeine as possible.